1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) communications, and in particular to managing telephone numbers and other services in a VoIP network platform.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many enterprises and consumers are replacing their traditional analog telephone service with VoIP service. VoIP offers many advantages over traditional analog telephone service, including cost savings, flexibility, advanced features, and integration with database and customer relationship management (CRM) software. A multitude of VoIP vendors have emerged to supply customers with the software and hardware components necessary to provide VoIP service. As a result, end-users have a wide variety of VoIP suppliers to choose from when purchasing software and hardware equipment. Also, VoIP communication solution providers have a wide variety of VoIP suppliers to choose from when provisioning hardware and software equipment to their end users.
As is often the case in heterogeneous VoIP networks, various resellers often have a variety of different relationships and interfaces to manage, and these interfaces may resemble a swivel-chair approach in which each interface is unique and handled separately. To manage each relationship or service within a specific platform, a reseller may have to switch between different software interfaces and/or applications for each separate service provided within the VoIP network platform. As used herein, a VoIP network platform may be broadly defined as a network infrastructure and user equipment capable of carrying voice signals as packetized data over an Internet Protocol (IP) network. A VoIP network platform may comprise at least the following hardware and software components and features: feature servers, softswitches, session initiation protocol (SIP) trunks, enhanced 911 (E911), direct inward dialing (DID), billing services, least cost routing, PBX equipment, and user devices. For each of these components, a VoIP provider may have many different suppliers to choose from when building its VoIP communication platform.
For example, a reseller may be tasked with selecting and activating a telephone number from one of many different telephone number providers. Providing interfaces to each of the different telephone number suppliers and managing the total inventory of telephone numbers may be a challenge for VoIP resellers. Therefore, there exists a need in the art for methods and mechanisms to aggregate and resell VoIP services in a VoIP network platform.